HUNTSVILLE – A home tournament and eight Southland Conference matches at home highlight the upcoming Sam Houston State volleyball schedule, with season tickets on sale and ready for purchase.

The Bearkats will kick off the 2018 season on August 24 at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum when they host Drake, Texas Southern and Bethune-Cookman, opening up a 28-match slate for 2018. They will then hit the road for nine consecutive matches over the next three weeks with tournaments at Louisiana, Georgia State and UT Arlington before opening up SLC play on Sept. 20 at home against McNeese.

Coach Brenda Gray’s squad returns 12 letter winners off of last season’s team that went 10-6 in Southland Conference play. Included among them are returning first team all-SLC selection Taylor Cunningham and all-SLC honorable mention setter Jaclyn Ward.

Tickets for the upcoming 2018 volleyball season are now on sale and a special early bird $10 season ticket is available now through Wednesday, July 4. Season tickets will be $30 after July 4.

Season tickets will be general admission seating and include all Sam Houston matches at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.

Single-game tickets will be $5 in advance. Tickets purchased the day of a match at the Johnson Coliseum Box Office will be $7. A group rate of $3 per ticket is available for all matches with the purchase of 10 or more tickets.

To purchase season tickets click here, to purchase single game tickets click here or call the Athletic Ticket Office at (936) 294-1729.

Sam Houston will take on Mississippi Valley State, Louisiana and Houston the weekend of August 31-Sept 1 in Lafayette, La., and then will battle Georgia State, Ole Miss and Chicago State the following weekend in Atlanta, Ga.

Non-conference play concludes one week later in Arlington where they will face off with Belmont, Grand Canyon and UT Arlington at College Park Center.

The home schedule in conference play includes the opener against McNeese, which is followed two days later by a matinee vs Lamar. After a trip to San Antonio to take on UIW on Sept. 27, the Kats will be right back at home for two straight matches on Oct. 6 and Oct. 9 against Abilene Christian and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

A swing through south Louisiana with matches at Nicholls (Oct. 11) and New Orleans (Oct. 13) will be followed by a three-match homestand, the longest for the Kats in league play. That stretch includes meetings with HBU (Oct. 16), Southeastern Louisiana (Oct. 18) and Northwestern State (Oct. 20).

With seven of its first 10 league matches at home, the Bearkats will have to withstand five of its final six matches on the road in the second half of the year. A tough swing at TAMUCC (Oct. 25) and HBU (Oct. 27) will be followed by the final home match of the year on Oct. 30 against New Orleans.

The Kats will then conclude the season with three straight matches on the road at Stephen F. Austin (Nov. 1), Central Arkansas (Nov. 3) and Abilene Christian (Nov. 10).

The Southland Conference Tournament will be held at Northwestern State this season and is set to begin Nov. 16 in Natchitoches, La.